Magdalena Kožená

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Magdalena Kožená as Carmen , with Jonas Kaufmann , at the Salzburg Festival 2012

Magdalena Kožená [ˈmaɡdalɛna ˈkoʒɛnaː] (born May 26, 1973 in Brno ) is a Czech opera singer ( mezzo-soprano ).

Life

Magdalena Kožená, who had wished to become a pianist from an early age, began playing the piano at the age of eight. A serious hand injury ended his career as a pianist at the age of twelve. After switching to singing, she began studying mezzo-soprano at the Brno Conservatory in 1987, which she continued in 1991 at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Bratislava with Eva Blahová . In 1995, the year she graduated, she won the 6th International Mozart Competition in Salzburg .

In 2002 Magdalena Kožená married the French baritone Vincent le Texier , whom she left in 2004 for the conductor Sir Simon Rattle . The first son of Kožená and Rattle was born in March 2005 in Salzburg, the second in June 2008 in Aix-en-Provence ; her daughter was born in June 2014 in Berlin . Kožená and Rattle married in October 2008 in Kožená's native city of Brno , the family lives in Berlin.

Career as a singer

Kožená had her first engagement in 1996 at the opera house of the Janáček Theater in Brno as Dorabella in Mozart's Così fan tutte . This was followed by an obligation to the Vienna Volksoper . After the end of this engagement Kožená worked as a freelancer and lived for some time in Paris . Magdalena Kožená had her big breakthrough in 2000 when she stood in for the sick Anne Sofie von Otter at the Wiener Festwochen - as Nero in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea . She has made guest appearances on major opera stages, especially in Europe, as well as at the Metropolitan Opera in New York (2003, 2006) and appeared at the Salzburg Festival . Musical partners with whom Kožená has performed numerous public appearances are the pianists and accompanists Graham Johnson and (currently) Malcolm Martineau .

On May 1, 2013, Magdalena Kožená took part in the Berlin Philharmonic's European Concert in the Spanish Hall of Prague Castle as a lieder singer . Under the baton of Simon Rattle, she performed eight (out of ten) Biblical songs by Antonín Dvořák . The concert was broadcast worldwide on radio and television.

Among the honors that Magdalena Kožená has received so far is the award of the title Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture (2003).

Awards

CDs

Exclusively from Deutsche Grammophon

  • 1998: Jakub Jan Ryba: Pastorale / Czech Christmas Mass
  • 1999: Christoph Willibald Gluck: Armide
  • 1999: Johann Sebastian Bach: "Arias"
  • 2000: "Love Songs"
  • 2000: Georg Friedrich Handel "Cantatas"
  • 2002: "Le belle immagini"
  • 2003: Bach St. Matthew Passion - Paul McCreesh
  • 2003: Handel: Julius Caesar - Marc Minkowski
  • 2003: "French Arias" - Marc Minkowski
  • 2004: "Songs"
  • 2005: "Lamento" - Reinhard Goebel
  • 2005: Christoph Willibald Gluck: Paride ed Elena - Marc Minkowski
  • 2006: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: La clemenza di Tito
  • 2006: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Arias - Simon Rattle
  • 2007: “Ah! mio cor “(Handel arias) - Andrea Marcon
  • 2009: “Vivaldi” - Andrea Marcon
  • 2010: Des Knaben Wunderhorn , Adagio from Symphony No.10 by Gustav Mahler - Cleveland Orchestra , conductor: Pierre Boulez
  • 2012: "Love and Longing" - Simon Rattle
  • 2014: "Prayer - Voice & Organ" - Christian Schmitt
  • 2016: Monteverdi (arias and madrigals) - Andrea Marcon

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ European concert from Prague with Sir Simon Rattle and Magdalena Kožená in the Digital Concert Hall of the Berlin Philharmonic
personal data
SURNAME Kožená, Magdalena
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech opera singer (mezzo-soprano)
DATE OF BIRTH May 26, 1973
PLACE OF BIRTH Brno